Saturday, 20 July 2013

Back To Blackwits....

I’m having
a sandwich. Brown sub roll with Coronation chicken, lettuce and a slice or two
of red pepper. It’s a good sandwich, a great sandwich, I am enjoying it very
much. However I wouldn’t go so far as to say it is my favourite sandwich.
Sooner or later I will return to my first choice. I know I will. I always do.
(its beef/pastrami, onion, lettuce and mustard FYI).

The point
is we all have our favourites, our “go to” things. Things that we always fall
back on, return to like an old familiar friend.

I have been
photographing migratory shorebirds for a few years now and I have a collection
of images of many species, but I always seem to gravitate to one species in
particular. The Black-tailed Godwit. No matter where I have been or what I’ve seen
I always seem to come back to Blackwits.

I’m not
sure why either. They aren’t particularly rare on the Patch, they are rather
plain in winter (when Patch numbers hit a maximum) and they don’t breed on
Patch. I don’t know what it is but I can’t get enough of them. Perhaps it is
the stunning summer plumage.

Perhaps it
is not the birds themselves. It could be because of Operation Godwit, a project
between Britain and Iceland that studies these imperious shorebirds to find out
more about their migration ecology and how and why their number have risen over
the last few decades. I have spent so long looking for colour ringed
individuals that I have become so used to these birds and their characters and
habits.

I suppose
my admiration for them has crept up on me, sort of filtered into my
consciousness by ornithological osmosis. Now I’m hooked. So it was bags packed
and off to Iceland
where the birds that winter on my Patch go to breed.

I had heard
that waders breed in Iceland
at incredible densities and that I’d see plenty so I had high hopes.

I wasn’t
disappointed. Travelling around the island we saw hundreds of breeding pairs of
Blackwit, Snipe, Whimbrel, Ringed and Golden Plover, Redshank and Red-necked
Phalarope. They were so easy to see too! Along the roadside chicks would search
for insect food while parents reclined on nearby fenceposts.

Before the
trip I was concerned about taking pictures of breeding birds. It is not
something that I have ever really done. I strongly believe in not disturbing my
subject. I have no interest in obtaining images to the detriment of the birds.
I’m not so arrogant or naïve to think that I get my pictures without the birds
knowing I am there, but as long as I do not alter their behaviour and harm
their chances of survival I am happy to record them.I needn’t
have worried as for taking pictures without disturbing birds Iceland is an
exceptional place. There were Whimbrels feeding as we filled up the hire car
with fuel. Blackwits wandered about the churchyard in the village we were
staying in and Ptarmigan chicks fluffed around the adjacent school playing
field. Snipe, Ringed Plover and Red-throated Diver were all garden birds!
Awesome… (Most of the photography was
done from a vehicle so I stayed pretty dry too!)

I was able
to see these birds in their breeding habitat and to see their chicks (I was
able to ring some too!) to witness the parts of their life cycle that I can’t
see on the Dee. It was the ultimate trip for a
Blackwit obsessive like myself.

There are
many stories to tell from those northern shores, tales of Phalaropes,
Harlequins, whales and divers. But for now I will leave you with the
Black-tailed Godiwt my king of waders….